A Little Slow
by badpirate
Summary: He didn't think he was this stupid. HR/SB, one-shot


**Author's Note**: This is _kind_ of related to my ongoing fic, _Fences_. It's one of the what-if situations I had considered and scrapped, but still liked. So I'm basically writing a fanfic of my unfinished fanfic. Go me, I don't fail at all.

This was written during a weeklong fanfiction challenge I did over at my sketch/fic blog. For more details, please look through the archives of hremail-livejournal-com!

He never noticed.

Then again, he never noticed anything. He was always a little slow. It wasn't like his density was a shocking new development, something new or unknown. It was well established.

But he didn't think he was this stupid.

Homestar shoved him away, mouth ajar in shock, syllables of half-words squeaking past his lips. Lips that had been recently overtaken by Strong Bad's, pushed open by a wet, warm tongue. He shook his head, eyes scrunched closed. Upon opening, he was still there. That had happened, hadn't it?

For the first time in Homestar's life, his brain was going a mile a minute and Strong Bad could only sigh, a half-hearted smirk on his face. He was so endearing sometimes, when he wasn't using his bathtub to make green jell-o (who even eats green jell-o? Everyone knew red flavor was the best. Homestar was stupid, so stupid).

"I-I'm confused," Homestar blurted, still stalling and tripping over his thoughts now that they had come to a halt. "That's not what... I mean, when you said you wanted to watch a movie, I didn't... I mean..."

Strong Bad let out an amused sigh. "You kept missing them."

"Th-them? Who them? What are you talking about?"

"Yes, them. Them, the... hints." Strong Bad shook his head. "You're so freakin' dense."

Homestar relaxed, but he could still feel his heart pumping, adrenaline from the fight-or-flight response. Or in response to that kiss, _why did that happen_? Strong Bad still wasn't explaining anything. Even worse, he was making it out to be obvious, like Homestar should have seen it coming, but who sees that coming?

"See, it's kinda funny," Strong Bad started slowly. Homestar had to agree- funny, but not ha-ha-funny, just the weird kind of funny that settled in the pit of his stomach. His green eyes flicked downwards. "You're just as lonely as I am."

A twinge in his chest. "Ever since Marzipan got engaged to that guy-"

"Trent," Homestar chirped, shoulders slumping.

Strong Bad smiled sadly at him. "Yeah, Trent. You've been... miserable. You stopped showing up for work, you were just... you weren't you."

"Um, Strong Bad?"

There was a pause. "Eee...yeah?"

Homestar cleared his throat. "What's that got to do with you tonguing me on your basement couch?"

He snorted and shook his head. "Well, I figured I had to be more direct. It's so hard to get through that thick skull of yours." He knocked on Homestar's forehead with a teasing smirk. Homestar batted him off, wincing away from his hands. "If I hadn't, you'd never realized I liked you."

Homestar's mouth fell open again and Strong Bad patted his cheek. "See? I swap spit with you and you still don't get it. You're so stupid."

"What do you mean you like me?" he blurted, confusion turning into frustration. "You don't like me, you're Strong Bad. Y... you hit me and kick me out of your house and..."

"And move in with you after your girlfriend dumps you, spend every minute of my life making sure you're okay, go out with you to the movies and restaurants when Pom Pom blows you off for his hipper friends..." Strong Bad said, ticking off on his fingers. He lowered his hands and grinned weakly. "It weirds me out as much as it weirds you out."

"I doubt that."

"The last thing I expected from all this nonsense was this," Strong Bad insisted. "I thought I would fill up on my very very small Homestar Runner quota for the year, and get so sick of you that I would move to Alaska just so I'd never have to see you again. And I hate Alaska. Alaska is Canada's uneven sideburns. So this is a pretty drastic turn of events for me."

Homestar folded his hands in his lap, glancing between his fingers and Strong Bad, not shying away when Strong Bad placed a hand on his shoulder.

"I can make you better."

He looked up, frowning. "But I'm not-"

"Me neither, man."

"Isn't this kind of sudde-"

"I've been dealing with it for a few months, so no... not for me, anyway."

Homestar was quiet for a moment, eyes drifting to the movie they had been watching. "I don't think I'm ready."

Strong Bad pulled his hand away, diverting it instead to his neck. He rubbed it awkwardly. "Wow, that's not really the... reaction I expected... well, maybe the one I expected, but not the one I wanted."

Homestar quietly watched the movie for a few minutes, until Strong Bad shifted onto the other end of the couch. He glanced at him, expecting something, anything, but Strong Bad just resumed watching the movie.

It was like that for an explosion or two, until Strong Bad broke the silence between them.

"I can wait."

Homestar was always a little slow.


End file.
